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| In Europe and North America, it has spread primarily among men who have sex with men, though health officials emphasise that the virus can infect anyone. Healthcare workers with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene help people register for the monkeypox vaccine at one of the city's vaccination sites on Jul 26, 2022. (File photo by= AP/Mary Altaffer) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] NEW YORK: Officials in New York City declared a public health emergency due to the spread of the monkeypox virus on Saturday (Jul 30), calling the city “the epicenter” of the outbreak, AP reported. The announcement on Saturday by Mayor Eric Adams and health commissioner Ashwin Vasan said that as many as 150,000 city residents could be at risk of infection.
The declaration will allow officials to issue emergency orders under the city health code and amend code provisions to implement measures to help slow the spread. In the last two days, New York Governor Kathy Hochul made a state disaster emergency declaration, and the state health department called monkeypox an “imminent threat to public health”. New York had recorded 1,345 cases as of Friday, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California had the second-most, with 799. “We will continue to work with our federal partners to secure more (vaccine) doses as soon as they become available,” Adams and Vasan said in the statement.
The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency on Jul 23. To date, there have been more than 22,000 monkeypox cases reported in nearly 80 countries since May, with about 75 suspected deaths in Africa, mostly in Nigeria and Congo.
